U.S. and Japan Reach Deal on Returning Okinawa Land

U.S. and Japan Reach Deal on Returning Okinawa Land

By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: April 5, 2013

TOKYO — The United States and Japan agreed on a new timetable for the return to Japan of an unpopular Marine air field and other military bases on Okinawa on Friday, moving to solve a long-festering issue that has bedeviled America’s ties with its largest Asian ally.

By agreeing to a clear timetable to return the land, the United States is hoping to entice Okinawans to drop their opposition to the air base, which the Americans want to move to another part of the island but many Okinawans want to move off the island. Local opposition has kept Japan from being able to follow through on an earlier deal to allow the base and its noisy aircraft to be relocated to a less populated area of the island.

The new and hawkish prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been trying to revive the deal at a time of increasing tensions with China that have led many Japanese to support strengthening the alliance with the United States, Japan’s longtime protector. The United States move on Friday could help Mr. Abe politically, by making clear what Okinawans stand to gain by agreeing to keep the base.

Announcing the new agreement in a room filled with American and Japanese flags, Mr. Abe called it a significant step toward finally carrying out a long-stalled plan that will reduce the burden of American bases on the Japanese island. The inability to move forward on that plan, leaving the future of the important air base in limbo, is an obstacle to the Obama administration’s strategic “pivot” to Asia.

“We are able to make progress in reducing Okinawa’s burden in a visible manner,” Mr. Abe said, flanked by a dozen American and Japanese officials. “I am extremely glad that everybody could sit down together today and reach a conclusion on this intractable issue.”

The centerpiece of the original deal was the relocation of the busy air base, the United States Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, from the middle of the city of Ginowan. The deal would also shrink the huge American military presence on Okinawa, a legacy of the United States occupation of that tropical island after World War II, by moving some 9,000 Marines to other bases in Guam, Hawaii and Australia.

Friday’s agreement tries to restart that plan by setting a target date of returning the Futenma base by as early as 2022, provided the replacement air base is finished and operational. It also lays out a timetable for handing over five other American bases, which along with Futenma occupy some 2,500 acres of land in the island’s crowded southern half.

Under the timetable, the first parcel — an access road and surrounding land totaling 2.5 acres — would be turned over to Japan this year.

In a bid to increase transparency and accountability, the new timetable also includes flowcharts outlining which government agencies in both countries need to take what steps for the land to be returned on schedule. American and Japanese officials said this was to prevent the deal from getting bogged down in murky bureaucratic proceedings, as happened in the past.

For the Obama administration, the agreement is meant to not only shore up one of America’s most important security relationships in Asia, but also to demonstrate to other regional allies, as well as rivals, that the United States has the willpower to maintain its security presence, despite its current budget difficulties and fatigue from wars in the Middle East.

“This sends a clear signal to the region that we are committed to making hard choices to keep our force posture in Okinawa,” said Mark Lippert, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, who visited Tokyo to finalize the agreement.

For Mr. Abe, restarting the stalled relocation plan would fulfill a campaign pledge to improve ties with the United States at a time when his nation faces a growing challenge from China over disputed islands near Okinawa. Becoming a fuller military partner of the United States has been a centerpiece of the popular prime minister’s bid to reverse his nation’s declining stature in the region after years of economic stagnation and its relative eclipse by China’s rise.

However, he is also taking a political risk on an agreement that may fail to appease Okinawan anger over what they see as an unfairly onerous American base presence.

The Abe government has been trying to whittle away at Okinawans’ opposition with offers of generous financial aid and other efforts to court the island’s governor, Hirokazu Nakaima, a base opponent who is also a member of Mr. Abe’s conservative governing party. In a sign the government’s tactics may be working, Mr. Nakaima offered uncharacteristic words of praise on Friday, though he warned that the central government still has to win over other local leaders.

“I think it is extremely good that the government is buckling down to deal in concrete terms with the return of bases,” Mr. Nakaima told reporters in Naha, the Okinawan capital. “But it is hard to evaluate the plan until I have had a chance to consult with mayors of the affected communities.”

One sticking point might be the timetable for moving the base. Under an earlier agreement, it would have been relocated next year. That can no longer happen because the United States does not yet even have a construction permit for the new base.

An original agreement on the base was reached in 1996 after the gang rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by American servicemen. 

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